Black horns on mounted trophies... Is this a normal?

[AfricaHunting.com]

If left in the direct sunlight horns will deteriorate.

 

[Aaron N]

Ok, I was just talking with Paul from Relive, and he mentioned there would be a chance with untreated horns

 

[steve newcombe [uk]]

I would not paint any horns they look like crap, best to clean them and leave natural.

 

[caddman]

BCHunter,

If your trophies are already mounted, its going to be tricky to clean the horns up and restore them to their original color. Most mounted trophies out of Africa are mounted to where the horns slip off the cores -for shipping purposes. If this is the case then do as Brickburn described and put the horns in a tub of hot soapy water -dawn dish soap is good and water temp to where you can still get your hands in the water without being burned. Then start scrubbing with a wire brush in the tub. The horns if they are painted or had some sort of oil applied to them use a solvent like lacquer thinner and a wire brush and scrub it off as well. Keep scrubbing until you get the desired color you want.

A lot of this comes from over boiling the horns off the skulls and where the grease and fats from the skull float on top of the water and the porous horn soaks in that fat and grease from the boiling. This causes discoloration and is touched up with black paint, etc.

If your horns are attached to the mount you will have to cover the mount in plastic to mask off the animal exposing the horns then use some lacquer thinner and a wire brush and scrub and wipe excess off with a shop towel.

After the horns are dry you can rub some natural dry dirt that matches the color-tan/red, ect of the original horns to, this helps to get a more natural look then blow off the excess and if you want to seal them in a clear matte sealer spray can.
If the horns are really bad they would need to have some airbrush painting done to them.

Basically you have to play around with it until you get the desired results and this can be very time consuming!

Hope this helps you guys out there!

Obviously All-American has a handle on this problem. I expect they have had to 'fix' imported problems like this prior. Another good reason why it is a good idea to use reputable professionals like them in the first place!